Hamlet as a Great Shakespearean tragedy

ASSIGNMENT PAPER NO - 1

            (Renaissance Literature)

        

       Submitted to- Smt.S.B.Gardy

Department of English

        M.K University Bhavnagar

       Topic-‘HAMLET’ as a great Shakespearean Tragedy.           

               ‘’Shakespeare is above all writers, at least above all,

                            Modern writers, the poet of nature, the poet that

                            Holds up to his readers a faithful mirror of manners

                            And of life … ‘’.

                                                                         Samuel Johnson.

William Shakespeare was the great dramatist of English literature. He has written four great tragedies like Hamlet, Macbeth, Othello, King –Lear. Among them he wrote Hamlet in 1600 to 1601.It is believed that Shakespeare had taken source for Hamlet from a revenge play,’ Spanish Tragedy’ by Thomas Kyd. However Shakespeare has a new pattern which deals and spirit moral possibilities of human behavior and displaying the extent to which men’s destinies are interrelated one with another. ‘Hamlet’ is totally observed as a true Shakespearean tragedy which includes a hero from high rank, element of conflict, supernatural element, and character is destiny, Tragic flaw etc…

The Hero from Elite class…

         A Shakespearean tragedy may be defined as a story may be defined as a story of exceptional calamity leading to the death of a man occupies a high position or status.

       Hamlet is the prince of Denmark. Hamlet was a well known honored and well    beloved figure in the political life of Denmark at the time at which the incidents of this play are supposed to have been taken place.

Presence of supernatural elements.

    In addition to the hero’s suffering and death, there is always in element of supernatural and sensationalism in Shakespearean tragedy, which contributes to the feeling of terror. In Hamlet there is the appearance of late king of Denmark, who informs Hamlet about his murder by his brother Claudius and his own wife Gertrude. It is the ghost who forced Hamlet his et to take revenge against his murder and insists him;

        If thou have nature in thee, bear it not,

        Let not the royal bed of Denmark be

         A couch for luxury and damned incest.

                           Thus it is the ghosts who indulge Hamlet to take revenge against his uncle which finally leads his own tragic end. In this way supernatural element play a vital role in the ‘Hamlet’ especially to leads the tragic flaw of the main character.

   Character is destiny.

               According to Aristotelian tragedy “DESTINY IS CHARACTER’ but in Shakespearean tragedy hero leads his own fate. Hamlet certainly produces a feeling in us that there is some mysterious working in this universe that power upsets human hopes, plans and calculation.

                  The fact that the late king having been murdered by Claudius is revealed to Hamlet not by any human being but by the spirit from other world.

The elements of conflict.

            Conflict is the essence of a Shakespearean tragedy. This conflict is of two types…

1)    Outward conflict among various characters.

2)    Inner conflict in the mind of the protagonist.

          In’ Hamlet the outward conflicts takes place between Hamlet and Claudius. Hamlet seeks to avenge his father’s murder by putting an end to life of Claudius. Moreover towards the end of the play an outwards conflict also takes place between Hamlet and Laertes because Laertes seeks to avenge his own father’s murder by killing Hamlet.

                 On the other hand, the inner conflict takes place in the mind of Hamlet, and is revealed to us in Hamlet’s successive soliloquies. Almost every soliloquies are the reflection Hamlet’s mental debate. The most celebrating of these soliloquies is the one that begins:

           ‘’to be or not to be that is the question’’

Violation of unities.

        According to Aristotelian tragedy any tragedy or drama should be observed by three unities of time, place and action. However, Shakespearean drama violates all the three unities.

         In HAMLET it allows the story to extend over month and even years. Moreover it changes the scene as often as necessary, sometimes from one town or one country to another .It even employs sub-plots and under plots, besides the central theme.

        Thus, Shakespeare followed his own pattern to write drama without following rules given by Aristotle.

Tragic flaw.

                    The tragic heroes of Shakespeare are built on a grand scale.Even; Hamlet is a man of genius, who has a high sense of honor. Moreover his heart is full of devotion to his dead father and has a noble mind. These qualities win him our admiration and sympathy in spite of his lack of a capacity for quick action and his tendency of procrastination.